Pao is about to marry the wrong woman. Seven years after he immigrates to Jamaica from China, he meets Gloria, a beautiful Jamaican prostitute who steals his heart. But Pao’s beloved mentor, Zhang, from whom he inherited the Chinatown “family business,” does not approve of Gloria. So Pao decides to marry Fay Wong, the elegant daughter of one of Kingston’s richest Chinese men. Suddenly Pao is running not only the Chinatown underworld, but also many legitimate businesses too, thanks to his profitable marriage.

But Fay is miserable in Chinatown; she plots an escape to England, taking her two children with her. Although Pao is devastated to lose his family, he realizes that his children are safer far away from Kingston --- after Jamaica gains independence from England, all hopes of unity and brotherhood soon dissolve into violence. As chaos overtakes the streets of Kingston, Pao must face his part in Jamaica’s struggle to overcome its great divides: between Chinese and African, capitalist and communist, wealthy and poor.